FYI
him from a career in Naval Aviation and
Luke settled instead for a rewarding
career as an intelligence officer which
saw him stationed in Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii, from 2011-2014.
It was in Hawaii that he noticed a
lot of military guys using e-cigs as a
replacement for cigarettes so he tried
them himself, kicked his 10 year smoking
habit and has not smoked a regular
cigarette since converting to vaping.
In 2013 he opened his first vape store in
Iowa, Hawkeye Vapor, while still serving
in the Navy but soon selling other
people’s products was not enough.
He said: “After receiving multiple e-liquid
samples from companies throughout my
time owning Hawkeye Vapor Lounge,
I realized that there were multiple
companies that didn't have great
branding, and the
e-liquid wasn't the
best.
“I thought that I
could provide the
vaping industry
a better quality
product, with
branding that people
could relate to in the industry so I came
up with the idea of a militarized, aviationtype e-liquid brand and Nighthawk
Eliquid was the result.
“Owning the vape shop and being on
the retail side for a couple of years, I
saw what sells. I saw what flavors sell
really well, so that was a good kind of
inside knowledge as a base for our flavor
profiles.”
Luke said the two key things he had to
get right was the flavor profiles for his
eliquids (he didn’t simply want to copy
what everyone else was doing) and
getting the branding just right.
He explained: “On the branding side, our
branding has a fighter pilot-type military
logo, and I think that best describes my
background. I think that it can relate.
Military guys can relate to it. People
that go to air shows just to go see the
Blue Angels, they can relate to it. It's
really edgy. I don't think anybody in the
industry has a military-geared brand
e-liquid company.”
Luke now plans to visit all the major
conventions in a bid to increase the
amount of international vape shops that
carry the Nighthawk Eliquid range.
For more information visit http://
nighthawkeliquid.com/
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 04 175